VULCAN, Mich. — For the past six years, Ed McBroom has devoted time to helping dairy farmers and the population of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As a state senator, McBroom attends to issues large and small in his jurisdiction while also running a dairy operation with help from his family.
“What I find most rewarding about serving as senator is helping people across the district who are running into some foolish bureaucratic problem,” McBroom said.
When a farmer renting land from the state for decades was told the state needed it back to put solar panels on it, McBroom worked with the farmer and state to get that changed. McBroom also helped a logger who was inappropriately being charged hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales tax.
“Accomplishing those things for people is very meaningful and a big part of what motivated me to run and why I continue to serve,” McBroom said.
A strong support system back home makes McBroom’s work as senator possible. McBroom’s wife, Sarah, and their five children — Helen, Eddie, Esther, Kenny Jack and Edith — help on the farm along with his niece and nephew, Melody and Carl, and his parents, Ken and Chris.
The McBroom family milks 120 registered Holsteins with two robotic milkers and farms 500 acres at Melodydell Dairy near Vulcan. The farm has a rolling herd average of 25,500 pounds of milk with cows averaging 90 pounds of milk per day.
“We worked hard to obtain that through breeding, better management and better feed,” McBroom said.
McBroom is the fourth generation to operate the farm his great-grandfather purchased in 1917. McBroom’s father married into the family in 1970 and took over the farm in 1974. McBroom’s older siblings moved on from the farm, but he and his younger brother, Carl, stayed on and continued to grow the dairy.
In 1998, the family switched from milking in a stanchion barn to milking in a parlor. In 2015, their farm became the second farm in the U.P. to put in a robotic milking system. With the new system, they reduced their herd from 140 cows to 120.
McBroom comes from a musically inclined family and majored in piano while studying music education at Northern Michigan University. After graduating in 2005, he looked for a full-time music position with plans to also farm. However, his involvement in the Michigan Farm Bureau took him down a different path.
“That got me connected with politics and policy making in Lansing in a way I was unfamiliar with,” McBroom said. “Like a lot of people, I tended to focus on Washington and what Washington is doing. But the more I got involved at the state level, the more I discovered how much everyday impact the state of Michigan was having on my farm, my life and my teaching.”
In 2009, he was asked to consider running for the Michigan House of Representatives.
“We prayed about it for several months, and my wife felt that God was giving us the green light to try,” McBroom said. “My dad and brother were very supportive of that decision.”
He beat the incumbent and served six years in the House.
“My brother made my participation in legislature feasible,” McBroom said. “He and his wife, Susan, had seven children during those years, and we all lived and worked together on the farm.”
In 2016, McBroom termed out of the House and decided to run for Senate in 2018. In the middle of that campaign, his brother, Carl, was killed in a car accident.
“It was overwhelming,” McBroom said. “I thought I would be quitting the race and stay home. But with a lot of family support and what seemed to be clear direction from Christ, I stuck with the race and surprised everyone when I won.”
Making life better for people in the U.P. is his mission, McBroom said.
“I’m a guy who likes to focus on small, nuance-focused issues to make the government work a little better here,” he said.
McBroom represents all 15 counties of the U.P. He presently serves on the oversight, transportation and elections committees. In the past, he served on the natural resources and regulatory reform committees.
“I find the oversight committee to be where my passions lie,” McBroom said.
“It gives me the ability to bring in departments and bureaucrats and hold them to account for decisions, policies, rulings and misspending of funds.”
Generating legislative bills and doing appropriations are also part of his task list, while back in the district, he provides services to his constituents. He often drives a few thousand miles a week to meetings across the U.P. or downstate. A one-way trip to the state capitol in Lansing is over 400 miles for McBroom.
“I’m fortunate to be able to do work on the phone as well,” he said. “My constituents call me regularly, whether I’m on the road, at a meeting or on the tractor. I’ve talked to the governor and attorney general while chasing cows that got out.”
McBroom said Lansing is considered a year-round legislature, and he is in the capitol building 35-40 weeks of the year.
McBroom has worked to help pass agricultural legislation, such as putting in the statute for the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program. This is a voluntary program that certifies farmers to do environmental stewardship work on their farm.
“This is probably the single biggest piece of agricultural legislation that has passed in my tenure,” McBroom said. “I’ve also fought against numerous bills that people tried to bring forward that would harm agriculture.”
McBroom got a bill passed regarding crop damage from bears and said he has also done work when it comes to farmland preservation, especially in forestry.
“I was able to reorganize the tax credit system for land kept in productive forestry and agriculture,” McBroom said.
Changing Michigan’s high school graduation requirements is what McBroom considers to be his greatest accomplishment thus far in politics. He said Michigan had set up requirements that forced kids away from technical education.
“Through tremendous bipartisan partnership with legislators, ag groups, manufacturers and others, we were able to make serious changes to that,” McBroom said. “That was important for ag and rural communities all over the state and for people in general. We need students graduating with a diversity of skills and available career paths.”
McBroom has also worked on farm vehicle license plates, access to roads and motor carrier inspections. McBroom has two years left to serve in the Michigan Senate and said he is thankful for the help he has in balancing careers of dairy farmer and senator.
“There are many days where all I can do is thank God that He helps me fill in the gaps and hold things together,” McBroom said. “I just do everything I can and don’t sweat the stuff I can’t do. The kids have become an amazing part of the operation.”
The youth on the farm have taken on tasks of all types — from breeding and feeding cows to fetching cows for the robots and running tractors.
“They are a huge part of the success and why we can keep on going,” McBroom said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it without my dad who has continued to be an active part of the farm even though he is at a point where I think he’d like to retire. All the kids talk about staying on in some capacity in the future. That’s exciting and encouraging. We persevere.”
Share with others
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here